


In the Silence of the Shining Sky (Kagayaku Sora no Shijima ni wa)

by MidoriKurenaiYume



Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe, Angst and Romance, Angst and Tragedy, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Torture, Reflection, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 19:02:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14625078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidoriKurenaiYume/pseuds/MidoriKurenaiYume
Summary: GilArt AU, inspired by the story of Samson and Delilah. With Arturia as Samson, and Gilgamesh as Delilah.





	In the Silence of the Shining Sky (Kagayaku Sora no Shijima ni wa)

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: obviously another sad/emotional story... This one has some torture and is in Gilgamesh's perspective; please remember that he is not necessarily a good person. Also, this fic doesn't have a happy ending, as it's more or less a tragedy :/ hope you will enjoy reading it anyway :)
> 
> Title: from one of my favourite Kalafina songs, their 8th single and part of the album 'After Eden'. Lyrics' translation by the canta-per-me forum ;)

...

…

_Open up the darkness_

…

...

When he received a request – or, as was more precise, an entreaty – for help, Gilgamesh was rather amused by it.

He wouldn’t have actually deigned to give it his attention if he hadn’t been finding his current life unbearably boring, but the task itself managed to catch his attention on its own. Being a lord granted him riches of any kind yet also very little truly interesting moments, which perhaps influenced him in his decision to accept to lower himself to do it.

When he had still been exploring the rest of the world by posing as a cunning assassin a few years before, he had gained quite an impressive reputation in a short while, at least until he had become bored of it and had ‘retired’. The fact that now other powerful people – even though decidedly beneath his status – had come to beg for his help meant that his name still hadn’t been forgotten.

The fact that it wasn’t an assassination mission was however the most interesting part of the request, because what those lords wanted was for him to capture the most powerful fighter the neighbouring country had. Said country was impoverished and would have made an easy target for them, if there hadn’t been a strong female warrior fighting to protect it and its people. She had taught the aspiring invaders a lesson more than once, and her skill had become almost legendary, together with the powerful weapon she wielded, a sword named Excalibur.

They wanted her to be defeated, but they also wanted her alive; therefore, they needed him to seduce her into trusting him enough so that he would be able to render her helpless.

Before accepting, Gilgamesh took his time, wanting to first gather some information about her. While the reports were sometimes contradicting, what he found out about her was able to raise his interest.

With more curiosity and amusement than he allowed to be seen, he consequently decided to agree to take on the task.

...

…

_A melody that you eternally yearn for_

…

...

He had made several guesses about the kind of person she could be, and some were accurate, but none of them was able to define her as she truly was.

Saber was a warrior first; while she had asked him some questions when she had met him in the neutral valley where he had strategically chosen to reside in order to approach his target, she hadn’t shown the slightest interest in him as a person. He knew that he was incredibly attractive, yet her complete immunity to his charm had been a remarkable surprise.

The only times she addressed him were to ask him whether he had any weapons and whether he was capable of fighting to defend himself, warning him that it was very likely there would be a battle sooner rather than later. She then went on to address several other people and he noticed that, while her words were always straight to the point and focused, she rarely offered a personal opinion or just some feeling in what she said.

She seemed to keep a wall between herself and everyone else, an impenetrable barrier no one could make her lower.

And that was partially what made her so strong, Gilgamesh came to realize after studying her behaviour for a few weeks. She didn’t allow herself – or anyone else – to create bonds, therefore keeping herself detached and bearing the full weight of her fighting duties, not sharing it with anyone.

After reaching that conclusion, he also realized that this wasn’t going to be an easy seduction.

...

…

_Where the moon sets_

…

...

Every attempt he made at entering a real conversation with her, either when he asked or forcibly tried to push her towards one, was thwarted. She was always too busy and paid him little mind; she wasn’t rude, she simply didn’t… she didn’t… she didn’t deem him _important_ enough to dedicate him her time.

Gilgamesh was unsurprisingly annoyed by that.

Saber had no right to ignore him when he demanded her attention. It wasn’t solely about the task he wanted to complete, it was now also about her as a person.

There were many layers hiding her true self, keeping her tightly locked away from the world, and he was becoming impatient in his desire to tear them apart and _see_ her.

...

…

_You’ll make your way_

…

...

It wasn’t until he saw her fight for her life that he understood what an incredible warrior she was.

He had seen any kind of combatants through the years, especially in his line of work, but he had never seen anyone quite like her. She was fiercely determined, quick thinking and unyielding in any situation, and even when the odds seemed to be against her, he never saw even a glimpse of defeat on her face.

He also saw, however, that she didn’t look happy. She never hesitated when she fought, but she did not enjoy taking part in a carnage. When she lowered her sword after hours of battle, he could see the sweat on her brow, the tiredness in the way she moved her muscles, and yet the fact that she still stood straight and proud, managing to look as composed – and even elegant – as ever.

It was only when she looked away from her dead enemies and her brilliant green eyes accidentally met his crimson gaze across the field that he realized that he had completely lost the notion of time and space while staring at her.

He had been completely absorbed by her magnificence.

That was also the moment when he recognized that things were slowly starting to slip out of control, and in an exceptionally dangerous way.

 _He_ was supposed to seduce _her_ , not the other way round. What was most extraordinary was that she wasn’t even trying.

...

…

_Across the darkness_

…

...

He wasn’t going to let his interest in her deter him from what his objective ultimately still was. She may be a fearless and abnormally skilled warrior, but she was human and she was fighting for a lost cause.

Her enemies did not want her dead; they wanted the possibility to humiliate her for fighting in vain.

In some ways, even Gilgamesh saw something that would interest him in that. He had only ever seen her when she stood in all her magnificence and glory of battle – not when she was defeated, because she never had been. Seeing her in that position would be something new.

Provided he managed to see it soon, of course. He had no doubt that she would come to trust him in time, but he was uncharacteristically not sure about _when_ it would happen.

Since he was now almost constantly staring at her, he had seen her stare back a few times as well. Her eyes were expressive but not easy to understand, therefore he couldn’t decipher more than wariness and indecision from her glances.

But he knew, now that he was certain about his unusually strong attraction to her, that he wasn’t going to allow things to continue like this for much longer.

...

…

_The far side of the shore_

…

...

When he managed to kiss her, he had to step aside and bend quickly, as he narrowly avoided the dagger she aimed at his neck with deadly precision.

They had been talking progressively more as the months passed, especially in the evenings, which was something Gilgamesh had found he enjoyed and even came to crave after a while.

“I demand an apology for your forward behaviour,” she growled at him, her lips slightly reddened by the passionate contact with his.

He stared at them unabashedly, and shook his head. He wasn’t going to apologize.

She was already aware of the fact that it was going to take more than a swift dagger to best him. Excalibur was lying a few steps away, and she eyed both him and the sword for a short while, obviously debating silently whether she wanted to behead him in her tent.

At last, she opted for a more peaceful resolution.

“Leave, and don’t come back tomorrow,” she ordered, her tone dark and making it clear that if he didn’t do as she said she was going to fight him.

Gilgamesh inclined his head and left her tent, but stopped outside, sitting down next to it. Nothing that she said or threatened him with managed to make him stay away, and as he wasn’t inside the tent anymore, she couldn’t demand for him to leave unless she used force, and apparently, she did not intend to do that.

For Gilgamesh, it was slightly degrading to stay out in the cold just because he refused to let her drive him away, but at the same time, he felt perfectly justified in his actions. He wanted her, even though she was stubborn and she was _very_ difficult to approach; if the price to pay for his attraction was having to stay outside her tent for a while, then so be it.

The next day, he was however forced – Excalibur at his throat – to offer a small apology for kissing her without permission.

And thanks to that, he was allowed to have conversations with her once again.

...

…

_Protecting the moon_

…

...

When she talked with him, there was always some space between them, and that was the first thing he made sure to change.

He wanted to be able to touch her, or rather, since she didn’t allow it, to be close enough to know he _could_ touch her.

While she never wavered in her being focused on defending her country and her people, he had seen her look at him more and more often, and he hadn’t been shy in meeting her gaze openly. She was slow to trust, but he did not intend to make things difficult for her, therefore he always looked her in the eye, never avoiding her.

When a few months later he found himself with the challenging but extremely thrilling duty to remove her armour and undress her – at her request – he didn’t hold back.

He had finally been able to tear through her walls.

...

…

_A child who doesn’t cry_

…

...

It was only a few days after he had first made love to her that he was wide awake, in the middle of the night, sitting on the bed next to her naked, sleeping form.

He knew the other lords were coming for her, and he was going to deliver – but he refused to let her be asleep when that happened.

He shook her slightly, waking her up, and quietly told her to get dressed. She was confused, but she decided to do as he said, trusting him implicitly.

Trust. He felt strangely conflicted about that specific emotion.

Once she was dressed, with Excalibur not lying far from the bed, he knew that the tent was already surrounded. He looked at her, his eyes unreadable, and then his hands gently went to hold hers. She stared back at him, now seeming slightly confused.

His voice came out very, very low when he said, “You shouldn’t have trusted me.”

Her confusion seemed to grow, but it was immediately replaced by a sudden expression of pain as he snapped her wrists to an unnatural angle, effectively breaking the bones.

She wasn’t going to be able to hold her sword or even just defend herself with both wrists broken.

Gilgamesh took a step back. The next moment, the tent was full of people and, even though she struggled with impressive fierceness, Saber was quickly subdued and covered in chains.

He looked at her in silence. She had immediately masked her emotions behind an impenetrable stony expression, but she hadn’t been able to suppress the flash of betrayal, disillusionment and pure loathing that he had witnessed the moment she had realized what was happening.

He knew exactly what was going to happen now. Without her, her country was going to be conquered and divided among the nobles. Saber’s destiny wasn’t specifically described, but she was going to be humiliated and tortured at the very least.

He had wanted to see her in every kind of situation. This specific one wasn’t as satisfying as he had somewhat expected it to be.

...

…

_The darkness of the night_

…

...

His role was technically over, as he had helped the lower lords and had had his entertainment as well, yet throughout the following months, he couldn’t get Saber out of his mind.

Tired of having questions about her fate to which he didn’t have an answer, he decided to go see her. He knew she was held in a prison cell, occasionally tortured – never sexually though, because even her worst enemies feared her too much as a warrior to cross that line – and constantly reminded of her failure in protecting her people.

He knew that Excalibur was held not far from her, to mock her, or so they said; in truth, Gilgamesh knew that the sword became incandescent whenever anyone tried to touch it, meaning that it was now useless. Excalibur was a powerful magic sword, but no one aside from Saber could wield it; since her jailers made sure not to let her wrists heal, she was never going to be able to do so.

The first time he went to see her, he wasn’t allowed entrance, but even from a distance he could hear her screams as she was likely being tortured. He was forced to leave, but he wasted no time in reminding those lords that they were beneath him and had no right to deny him anything. Sending such a message to them involved several kills, yet they didn’t give him the pleasure and satisfaction he would have usually felt.

He went again a few days later, and this time entered without anyone stopping him. He was immediately shown to the underground cell and left alone with her.

Saber was sitting on the ground, her knees to her chest, trembling slightly from the cold, her head lowered to preserve as much body warmth as she could. She didn’t move when she heard him enter.

Even when he called her name, she didn’t raise her head. She stiffened slightly, indicating that she recognized him and wasn’t pleased by his being there, but she didn’t otherwise acknowledge his presence.

Gilgamesh told her briefly everything that had happened ever since he had agreed to help the lords who had begged for his help. She hadn’t asked for an explanation, but he was certain that she had heard rumours or had formed her own conclusions; he wanted to make sure to lay down his own version of the facts, even though he wasn’t entirely sure about why he bothered.

She still didn’t move when he was done, making him slowly become frustrated with her motionlessness.

“Saber, won’t you look at me?” he finally hissed, feeling anger starting to grow at her continual refusal to glance at him. He wanted to see her eyes.

An odd sound came from her, something close to a growl.

“How dare you,” her voice was deadly. “Are you so impatient to want to humiliate me even further?”

He started to answer her, but then her head suddenly snapped up and he was silenced, staring at her in horrified shock.

Where there had once been beautiful green eyes, there were now empty eye sockets. Dry blood coated her skin, especially her brow and cheeks, indicating that her eyes had not been removed gently.

She had been tortured without mercy.

It took a long while before he could speak again, or look anywhere that wasn’t the two hollows that had once held her eyes. Her expression was hard to read, but in spite of her earlier tone, she didn’t seem to show any emotions, managing to keep her thoughts well concealed.

“What have they done to you,” he breathed, unable to fully realize what he was seeing.

To his surprise, she inclined her head to the side slightly and quietly answered, “Contrary to me, you can still see what.”

There was no rage in her voice, it wasn’t bitter or resentful, but it still managed to hit him with more strength than a whip.

He tried to ask her more, to talk about anything else, but she wouldn’t add another word.

She obviously had nothing more to say to him.

As he walked out of the prison cell, Gilgamesh felt oddly nauseous. He may have wanted to see her brought at her lowest, but he had now found out that he didn’t enjoy it at all.

...

…

_I can’t ever meet you again_

…

...

He had done something he shouldn’t have. He shouldn’t have accepted the task of seducing Saber. He shouldn’t have given Saber to her tormentors.

He had needed to see the mutilation caused by torture to realize what he had done.

In the midst of his conflicting feelings, there was surprisingly room for admiration as well. He couldn’t help being impressed by the fact that she hadn’t allowed the irreversible damage to break her. Even after all the humiliation she had endured and the fact that she had been rendered blind, she still didn’t allow him to intimidate her, and she didn’t give any of her captors – especially _him_ , as he had realized – the satisfaction of seeing her reactions to the torture.

Gilgamesh knew that there was nothing to be done about her eyes, but he began to wonder about her wrists. If only they were healed, then she would be able to wield Excalibur again – and take her well-deserved revenge.

He recalled that he had never seen Saber use a sheath for her sword, but she had mentioned its existence a few times, saying that it was equally powerful, if not more.

That could perhaps be a possibility.

He would be able to find out more if he went to her country, which had by now been conquered and divided among the greedy lords. After some weeks of search, he didn’t have much trouble in finding the place where Saber had grown up and which she had left behind when she had started to fight for the sake of the people.

Gilgamesh was slightly taken aback at finding an old man there, who introduced himself as Merlin and, without even asking anything, simply handed him a blue sheath, finely decorated in golden.

“This is Avalon,” was all the elderly man said, before vanishing.

...

…

_Lovingly and madly_

…

...

Gilgamesh was told that, on the anniversary of capturing Saber, the lords intended to take her to their biggest temple and basically show off what had become of the famous warrior who had so strenuously opposed them.

He knew that it was the right moment to act.

He made it clear that he was to be the one to accompany her from the prison cell to the temple. The lords insisted on taking Excalibur to show it off as well, even though it was going to be carefully wrapped so that it couldn’t burn anyone.

He found Saber much thinner than he remembered her being, but still firm and standing up steadily on her own. She didn’t stiffen when she recognized him this time.

As soon as he saw her, Gilgamesh didn’t wait and simply pressed Avalon into her palm.

The sheath disappeared into her body and she shuddered, her empty eye sockets widening as she immediately felt the healing powers beginning to work.

In a very low voice once again, he told her, “Excalibur will be near.”

Her head turned in the direction where she could hear his voice coming from and she was silent for a long while, seemingly evaluating his words and deciding whether to believe him or not. She moved one of her wrists cautiously, and he noticed that it was already in much better shape. Avalon’s healing powers were truly incredible.

Eventually, just before leaving her cell with him, she nodded.

Since Saber had been captured at night, the celebration was going to be held at night, too. She was made to walk to the temple, in silence; there was a bandage covering her missing eyes, but her hands weren’t tied together, as her wrists were still supposed to be broken. Behind her were two guards holding Excalibur, obviously covered so that it wouldn’t hurt their flesh.

Inside the temple, Saber was pushed forward, on her knees, the sword placed mockingly in front of her, since she couldn’t see it anyway. There were several speeches, followed by hollers and laughs, nothing but derision for the warrior woman on display.

Gilgamesh had a hard time in holding back his contempt, and when he couldn’t take it anymore, he leaned towards her, brushing against her shoulder lightly, his touch nudging her forward, wordlessly indicating to her where Excalibur was.

She turned her head towards him and said, very quietly, “This is the only chance you have to leave.”

He knew no one else could hear them, and he was well aware of the fact that she couldn’t see him as he smiled – and she wasn’t going to be able to confirm whether or not he actually left either.

“I will,” he lied.

Saber lowered her head, waiting several seconds, presumably allowing him the time to leave the temple. Then she flexed her fingers, almost unnoticeably; her wrists had healed.

In a single movement, she reached forward, her hand closing around Excalibur’s hilt with almost unnatural precision. The sword glowed, shredding its cover, its power now ready to be used, and the lords around her stepped away in astonishment, slowly starting to realize what was happening.

Gilgamesh remained standing near her, looking at a blind Saber raising her golden sword in the air, its power visibly increasing. He could have left, she had after all given him a warning for a reason, but he had chosen not to, and he felt no regret about his decision.

He wanted to witness her true glory.

When the power from the sword was unleashed, the whole temple was hit by it, and walls and ceilings started to collapse, with everyone trapped inside.

The only sound heard was the deep rumble of the building falling to pieces, the night sky slowly becoming visible above them. Gilgamesh stared at Saber, her arms having lowered after she had delivered the blow.

Her face looked calm. Not serene, but at peace, filled with the steady knowledge of having put an end to her life on her own terms.

He smiled.

The rest of the building fell on them, burying them under the rubble together with everyone else.

...

…

_Goodbye_

…

...


End file.
